Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Lisa Hepburn, PhD, MPH¹, Deborah Azrael, PhD², Matthew Miller, MD, ScD², and David Hemenway, PhD². (1) Havard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, 404-377-1406, lhepburn@hsph.harvard.edu, (2) Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington ave, boston, MA 02115

Purpose- To assess the level of knowledge about state-level child access prevention (CAP) laws among adults in the United States and to determine whether living in a CAP law state or awareness of a CAP law affects firearm storage behavior.

Methods- We conducted a nationally representative telephone survey of adults in the United States in 2004 to address questions regarding firearm ownership and use. Cross-tabulations and multivariate logistic regression models were used to investigate correlates of knowledge about CAP laws and the relationship between CAP law knowledge and firearm storage practices.

Results- Sixty-percent of people living in CAP law states identified their state as having a CAP law and 50% of people not living in a CAP law state thought their state had a law. Firearm owners were more likely than non-gun owners to correctly identify their state as having a law. In gun-owning households with children, living in a CAP law state was associated with a lower likelihood of storing firearms in an unsafe manner (0.31, 95% CI 0.11-0.91). Households without children demonstrated no statistically significant association between unsafe firearm storage and living in a CAP law state (0.94, 95% CI 0.58-1.52).

Conclusions- The majority of adults living in CAP law states are aware that these laws exist. Living in a CAP law state is associated with a lower likelihood of unsafe firearm storage only if there are children present in the home. These are the households that are directly affected by the laws.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe child access prevention (CAP)laws
• Identify the level of knowledge of these laws among different subgroups of people
• Articulate the relationship between CAP laws and unsafe firearm storage

Keywords: Firearms, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No